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Patience Pays Off

Players are often faced with a single naval unit that seems to offer
minimal usage, and decide they’d rather go ahead and eek what little
value it offers out of it right now, rather than being patient.

For example, if through a combination of skill or luck the UK player
still has his Indian transport a few turns into the game and Africa is
already won by the Allies, the UK player may be tempted to just bring a
couple of African infantry up through the Suez Canal and join in a
larger attack that may be going on in the Ukraine or Caucuses.

However, while that may offer some marginal value right now, what is
the German player going to do on his turn?

Two fighters and a bomber are going to easily wipe out that
undefended transport and the potential threat it might have remained
will go with it.

Consider instead that the UK player uses that transport instead to
shuttle troops out of Africa and into Asia. Meanwhile, it sits there in
the Red Sea, constantly posing a threat to Southern Europe that the
Armada off the coast of England could never cause. The entire game, the
Germans will be forced to keep a few infantry in Southern Europe as a
result of that threatening transport. If it weren’t there, Southern
Europe would be perfectly safe, and could be left completely empty,
freeing up those troops for other duties.

Similarly, a US transport off the coast of Western Canada poses a
threat to the Soviet Far East, not to mention Japan itself in a couple
of turns (should the Japanese fleet decide to flit off to Africa).

So when you have a single remaining naval unit in a certain theater,
resist the temptation to just throw it to the wolves, as you’ll often
find it can serve a far better purpose just lurking around and waiting
for its day in the sun.